Grounding: Cultivating Awareness, Safety, & Self-Compassion
The holiday season and other year-end ventures are upon everyone, so what helps to steady the pace and stay in the moment? Many walk-through heavy milestones, states of overwhelm from life pressures and transitions, feel blue due to change of the seasons, numb out over family events, completely dissociate and/or feel triggered from current or previous trauma. Even the most meaningful, planned moments may create hypervigilance, depression, exhaustion, or illness due to keeping up with the demands of life. Grounding is one area to explore. With grounding, people are able check-in with their body, mind, and emotions, work through simple exercises to calm the nervous system, and lean in to notice more about themselves. If someone chooses to incorporate the concept on a consistent basis, there is often a noticeable improvement with anxiety, depression, stress, and managing PTSD.
Grounding Strategies
*Heart Breathing
Focus in on the heart! If possible, close the eyes and place the hand over the heart. Envision the air flowing in and out of the chest and heart area. Breath in for a count of 5, exhale for a count of 5. Repeat as many times as necessary for a calmer state. While practicing, soak up the gratitude of the moment and recall a positive experience to reinforce.
*5-4-3-2-1!
Utilize the 5 senses to take in everything! Start in any preferred order and go through each one. For example, look around to take in 5 things to see, 4 things to touch, 3 things to hear, 2 things to smell, and 1 thing to taste. The idea is to take note with careful attention and attempt to gently as well as slowly reflect on each area.
*Try a repetitive, simple task, interest, or phrase
What is an easy task or interest to pick-up for a few minutes? If preferred, memorize a phrase to repeat, which helps anchor to the here and now. List out a few ideas to start, and then try one for a few minutes. Ideas include repeating a chore such as folding laundry, sweeping, or washing dishes. For more areas of interest, explore doodling patterns, walking back and forth, knitting, or sewing.
*Observe the tornado
When a tornado appears in the pathway of life, evaluate the position! Crisis often places a person on high alert! However, at some point, staying in the tornado causes havoc. By picturing oneself on the sidelines of the tornado, there is an ability to observe and take in the storm as well as process one’s emotions from a safe place.
*Body Scan
In order to find tension, scan the body. Start at the top of your head and go all the way to the feet. Filter through different parts of the body with kindness and repeat as many times as needed. What is coming up? Tension, pain, ease, support? Notice the physical sensations and any emotional responses as well. Reflect on areas of concern and discomfort. What will boost relaxation and express emotion right now?
*Change the Channel
The technique focuses on how problems in life come up and take longer to resolve; however, someone may choose to refocus attention elsewhere, instead of staring at the same screen over and over. Imagine the problem(s) are on a device, now change the channel/screen, turn-down the volume, or even shut-down everything to step away. Problems exist but staring at issues over and over drains all parts of someone.
Even if the current season is welcomed, everyone becomes dysregulated and needs basic self-care practices to refocus and gain control of the present moment. Just a few minutes of grounding provides relief! During seasons of changes and shifts, find the best fit grounding practices to support personal needs. Know Your Worth Counseling and Wellness is here to enhance support too, so reach out for help!
Grounding Reflections & Questions
What signals does your body, mind, and emotions provide when you need to ground?
How often do you need to ground, in order to show up in other areas of life?
What grounding exercises do you need to look at for home, work-life, family, friendships, holidays, etc.?
Who is/was a grounding source in your life?
Resources for Grounding
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety, Sarah Wilson The Complex PTSD Workbook: A Mind-Body Approach to Regaining Emotional Control and Becoming Whole (Healing Complex PTSD), Arielle Schwartz, Phd. Strong like Water: Finding the Freedom, Safety, and Compassion to Move through Hard Things--and Experience True Flourishing, Aundi Kolber. (Christian) 
